


your heart is a precious thing (and you more precious more still)

by sansakatara



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: House Martell, oberyn is elia's biggest cheerleader, one of the most underrated sibling relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-01-27
Packaged: 2021-03-13 03:20:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29021850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sansakatara/pseuds/sansakatara
Summary: She wouldn’t have minded any place they went really, just as long as she had her brother with her.
Relationships: Elia Martell & Oberyn Martell
Kudos: 12





	your heart is a precious thing (and you more precious more still)

Elia breathed in the salt air, her dark hair tightly braided to avoid the wind whipping it in her face.

Their ship, _Legacy,_ was journeying towards Lannisport, situated less than a mile south from the mighty castle of Casterly Rock. The Westerlands was to be the last stop on what was their mother’s quest to find a suitable match for Elia and Oberyn.

Her heir, Elia’s older brother Doran, had already been joined to another in the sight of the Seven. Lady Mellario was of high birth, but she came from Norvos, one of the Free Cities across the Narrow Sea. Therefore, Princess Loreza must look closer to home for the marriages of her two younger children.

Elia understood all that. She had always known that marriage was her duty, and it was her duty to marry who her mother saw fit. It was rare for the highborn to have what was called a “love match”.

But right now, all she cared for was the places they’d seen. They had travelled further than Elia had done so far in her sixteen years, to Starfall and the Arbor, to Oldtown and Shield Islands. Elia would have loved for them to travel still further, perhaps to the rich and fertile Riverlands or even the North itself. She wouldn’t have minded any place they went really, just as long as she had her brother with her.

As if she had summoned him, Oberyn came up beside her on the deck. At fifteen, he was just a year younger than Elia but sometimes it felt as though they could have been twins.

“I thought I would find you here.” He said.

“Well, there is only so many places you can go on a ship, Oberyn.” Elia laughs. Oberyn shrugs, grinning. “I wonder if, at Casterly Rock, our mother will find a match that she finds worthy of you.”

“And you.”

Oberyn shrugged again. “I’m the thirdborn, remember? And because Dorne, thank the gods, is not like the rest of the Seven Kingdoms, you come before me in the line of the succession if something happens to Doran. Who you marry is important.” He then paused, and looked thoughtful. “Something that can also be said of a particular prince.”

“Prince Rhaegar?” Elia raised her eyebrows.

“Why not? You’d most suited. Your near in age. Rhaegar has no sisters or female cousins, but we are still related to the dragons through Princess Daenerys. You’d make a fine queen, sister.” Elia did not know what to say to that. Being queen was not something that she thought of. Wanting to change topics Elia asked, “Tell me more of Sandstone, Oberyn.”

When she hears of her brother bewitching a girl at Sandstone, ‘a lovely thing’, Elia feels herself half-torn between exasperation and fondness. “You will break many hearts in your time, dear brother.”

Oberyn laughed, then sobered. “Perhaps. But I know this – I will kill any man that breaks yours.”


End file.
